Section Eleven

“May the curse of Allah be upon Ibne Marjana and may the curse of Allah be upon ‘‘Umar b. Sa’ad and may the curse of Allah be upon Shimr.”

Ibne Marjana is one of the people discussed in the previous section as he is from the family of Ziyad. Since his mother was an adulteress named Marjana, if we wish to refer to him by his mother’s side, he would be known as Ibne Marjana, while if we wish to refer to him by his father’s side, who was also an unchaste person, he would be known as b. Ziyad. Thus, (‘Ubaydullah) b. Ziyad is also known as ‘Ubaydullah Ibne Marjana – one with an unclear lineage and family tree.

What was Ibne Marjana’s role in the event of Karbala’? He was the governor of Basrah and then was sent to Kufah. He was directly responsible for the killing of Muslim b. ‘Aqil and also guilty of massing the troops towards Karbala’.

‘‘Umar b. Sa’d b. Abi Waqqas is the second person cursed in this section. Sa’d b. Abi Waqqas was a prominent companion of the Prophet, however like others, he let the material world and Satan get the best of him some time after the death of the Messenger of Allah.

Rising up in opposition to the Imamate of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, he refused to pledge his allegiance to the successor of the Prophet and after a lifetime of submission to Islam, ended up leaving this world in opposition to Allah. However his son, who was cursed by Prophet Muhammad and Imam ‘Ali did not even enjoy a temporary lofty rank and was actually disowned by his father! His role in the event of ‘Ashura was as commander-in-chief of the entire battalion on the plains of Karbala’ as he was given the “honour” of being the governor of Ray (a village on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran – it still exists today as a suburb of South Tehran).

To show his perversity and Satanic ideas at the mere thought of killing the remaining grandson of the Prophet, we quote two lines of poetry he composed:

“Should I give up the government of Ray which is my ultimate goal and desire to attain?
Or should I return to Kufah, guilty and culpable of the killing of al-Husayn?
And in the killing of him (al-Husayn) is the hell fire of which there is nothing to save me,
However the government of Ray is that thing which brings pleasure to my eyes.”

Shimar b. Dhil Jawshan, the third person cursed in this section was once a staunch follower of Imam ‘Ali and even fought against Mu’awiyah in the battle of Siffin, however he too succumbed to Satan and followed his low desires.

His crimes included encouraging Ibne Ziyad not to accept any sort of peace treaty with Imam Husayn and to ensure that he was killed to prevent any more ‘rebellion’ in the nation. His sins are too numerous to recount here, however his greatest crime was severing the head off of the body of Imam Husayn.